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Safety
1.Would any of our project ideas raise safety issues in terms of:
-researcher safety,
-public safety, or
-environmental safety?
Standards for a Security Level 1 lab:
The lab where our iGEM team works, is a security level 1 lab according to the Gentechnikgesetz (law for gene technology). This means that the lab conforms to standards that our instructors introduced us to in the beginning of the project in April 2009. After a safety briefing for the group, we had a “safety-tour” through the lab while our advisor Kristian told us how to handle the different instruments like centrifuges and Bunsen burners and showed us were to find the fire extinguishers, safety showers and eye showers and explained the handling. In the lab we store highly inflammable materials and gas containers in a safety cabinet. When we were working with hazardous chemicals or genetically modified organisms we were wearing suitable protection gear such as lab coat, safety glasses and gloves. We disinfected our hands, the pipettes and the bench before and after working with bacteria and phages. Most of the material we use in the lab has to be sterile and it went through the autoclave before and after using. All the bacteria waste was collected in autoclave bags and autoclaved before delivered to the waste containers to prevent an environmental pollution. While working with toxic stuff or reagents that are harmful to health we additionally used the hood as working station. When using liquid nitrogen or working with UV-light we were wearing safety glasses and gloves and handled our reagents with care.
2. Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution?
In Germany we have by law a safety officer in each lab/working group who controls their work and notes.
3. What does your local biosafety group think about your project?
We made sure to follow all regulations described by the Gentechnikgesetz (law for gene technology) including the Gentechnik-Sicherheitsverordnung-GenTSV (gene technology safety-regulation), the Gentechnik-Aufzeichnungsverordnung-GenTAufzV (gene technology recording regulation) and the Gentechnik-Verfahrensverordnung-GenTVfV (gene technology proceeding regulation). Thus we classified our work as safety-level one work.
4. Do any of the new BioBrick parts that you made this year raise any safety issues?
No, the E. coli strains with which we did our experiments have been deactivated, so that they aren’t anymore able to cause diseases. The E.coli strains are non pathogenic and non adherent. The genes we clone are coding for non toxic and non pathogenic proteins.
